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Fla. Schools Approve Free, Online Reading Program

Posted on: Thursday, 24 January 2008, 06:00 CST

By Greg Toppo

Elementary school teachers in Florida this fall will be the first in the nation to have access to a free, state-approved online reading program. State Education Commissioner Eric Smith last week officially adopted the program, called Free-Reading, state Education Department spokesman Tom Butler said Wednesday.

The move puts Free-Reading on an approved list of programs that schools can use as a supplement to conventional textbooks. While schools can access it for free, its developer, a Brooklyn-based startup called Wireless Generation, hopes to profit by offering training and related materials for a fee.

If the program is successful, it could lead other states to experiment with "open source" materials that could save schools billions of dollars. U.S. schools last year spent $4.4 billion on textbooks, says Eduventures, an education research and consulting firm in Boston.

Florida is one of the top five textbook markets in the USA, so the move could lead to development of other free materials that might someday challenge the dominance of big educational publishers.

Wireless Generation CEO Larry Berger on Wednesday called the program "a step toward changing the status quo and giving schools the money and flexibility to reprioritize their spending."

Following state approval, schools may begin using Free-Reading in the fall, but the company says it expects that a few teachers may begin using it as early as this spring, since it is already available online. About three dozen teachers nationwide have been piloting Free-Reading since last year.

The company said it is expanding the program and expects to ask California school officials to consider it this spring. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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